Incident management for automated teller machines

ABSTRACT

A computer system monitors a financial transaction system that contains a plurality of remote transaction machines, e.g., automated teller machines (ATMs). The computer system detects and analyzes whether any of the automated teller machines has an outage, whereby customers may be experiencing failed financial transactions. When an outage occurs, a severity level is selected by processing outage data. For example, the computer system determines a measure of the number of failed transactions and then selects a severity level of the outage from which the appropriate recovery procedure can then be initiated. When the transaction system comprises a plurality of networks, the severity level of an outage may be determined by aggregating or separately processing outage data for the networks. Outage ATMs may be prioritized from the number of corresponding failed transactions, so that the prioritization can be included in an indicator that initiates resolution of the outage.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/540,691 filed on Jul. 3, 2012, entitled “Incident Management forAutomated Teller Machines,” which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

FIELD

Aspects described herein relate to a computer system that processesinformation about an outage of a financial transaction system.

BACKGROUND

Customers of financial institutions are becoming more dependent onautomated systems for obtaining cash, depositing/withdrawing moneyto/from accounts, and paying bills. For example, automated tellermachines (ATMs) are almost ubiquitous to provide financial transactionsfor customers. An ATM may enable customers to withdraw cash from one'saccount, make balance inquiries, and transfer money from one account toanother using a plastic, magnetic-strip card with a personalidentification number issued by the financial institution.

While automated systems may be more convenient than traditionallystaffed locations, automated systems can experience operational problems(often referred as outages) that can disrupt service to customers.Because customers do not have direct contact with a person, automatedsystem outages should be identified and corrected in an expeditiousmanner to reduce an adverse impact on customers.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not anextensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identifykey or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope ofthe disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts ofthe disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the descriptionbelow.

According to traditional systems, the severity of an outage of anautomated transaction system may be determined from the number ofautomated teller machines (ATMs) that are experiencing the outage.However, the number of failed transactions may be dependent on otherfactors such as the time of day that the outage occurs. For example,transaction activity is typically less at midnight than at noon.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods, computer-readable media,and apparatuses for monitoring a financial transaction system thatcontains a plurality of remote transaction machines, e.g., automatedteller machines or cash handling machines. The computer system detectsand analyzes whether any of the automated teller machines has an outage,whereby customers may be experiencing failed financial transactions. Anoutage may be caused for different reasons, both unplanned and planned.An unplanned occurrence may result from a weather-related event thatdisrupts electrical power to a portion of a transaction system, andconsequently some or all or the automated teller machine may notproperly support financial transactions for customers. Also,communications through a network with some or all of the automatedteller machines may be disrupted, causing an outage between theautomated teller machines and a central monitoring and/or controlcomputer. In addition, an outage may occur for planned reasons, e.g.,when performing maintenance on the ATMs or communication network. Whenan outage occurs, the financial provider typically desires to correctthe outage as soon as possible to reduce the effect on customers.

According to one or more aspects, a monitoring computer obtains outagestatus of each ATM of a transaction system. The monitoring computerdetermines a measure of the number of failed transactions and thenselects a severity level of the outage. The appropriate recoveryprocedure may then be initiated according to the selected severitylevel.

According to one or more additional aspects, criteria for determiningthe severity of an outage may be different for planned operations, e.g.,scheduled maintenance, versus unplanned events, e.g., network outage.

According to one or more aspects, a transaction system may span aplurality of networks, where each network is supported by a differentvendor. The severity level of an outage may be determined by aggregatingor separately processing outage data for the networks.

According to one or more aspects, outage ATMs may be prioritized duringan outage. The prioritization may be determined from the number ofcorresponding failed transactions, so that the prioritization can beincluded in an indicator that initiates resolution of the outage.

Various aspects described herein may be embodied as a method, anapparatus, or as one or more computer-readable media storingcomputer-executable instructions. Accordingly, those aspects may takethe form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely softwareembodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects.Any and/or all of the method steps described herein may be implementedas computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium,such as a non-transitory computer-readable medium. In addition, varioussignals representing data or events as described herein may betransferred between a source and a destination in the form of lightand/or electromagnetic waves traveling through signal-conducting mediasuch as metal wires, optical fibers, and/or wireless transmission media(e.g., air and/or space).

Aspects of the disclosure have been described in terms of illustrativeembodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications, andvariations within the scope and spirit of the disclosure will occur topersons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this disclosure.For example, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that thesteps illustrated herein may be performed in other than the recitedorder, and that one or more steps illustrated may be optional inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limitedin the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicatesimilar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environmentthat may be used according to one or more illustrative embodiments.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative system for implementing example embodimentsaccording to one or more aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a transaction system with a plurality of automatedteller machines according to one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates assessing a severity level of a transaction systemthat is experiencing an outage according to one or more aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart for assessing outage data for atransaction system according to one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart for assessing a severity level of atransaction system according to one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart for determining whether to perform animmediate update within a transaction system according to one or moreaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart for determining a failed customerindicator for a transaction system according to one or more aspects ofthe present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and inwhich is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which thedisclosure may be practiced. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modificationsmay be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the presentdisclosure.

In accordance with various aspects of the embodiments, a computer systemmonitors a financial transaction system that contains a plurality ofremote transaction machines, e.g., automated teller machines (ATMs) orcash handling machines. The computer system detects and analyzes whetherany of the automated teller machines has an outage, whereby customersmay be experiencing failed financial transactions. An outage may becaused for different reasons, both unplanned and planned. An unplannedoccurrence may result from a weather-related event that disruptselectrical power to a portion of a transaction system, and consequentlysome or all or the automated teller machine may not properly supportfinancial transactions for customers. Also, communications through anetwork with some or all of the automated teller machines may bedisrupted, causing an outage between the automated teller machines and acentral monitoring and/or control computer. Consequently, customers maynot be able to complete transactions at an ATM until the outage has beenresolved. Planned changes in the surrounding infrastructure thatsupports the telecommunication equipment/network may also cause adisruption. In addition, an outage may occurred for planned reasons,e.g., when performing maintenance on the ATMs, the telecommunicationnetwork/equipment, or the infrastructure that supports thetelecommunication network/equipment. When an outage occurs, thefinancial provider typically desires to correct the outage to reduce theeffect on the customers.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment100 that may be used according to one or more illustrative embodiments.For example, as will be further discussed, computing system environment100 may support processes 500-800 as shown in FIGS. 5-8, respectively,to support a financial transaction system. The computing systemenvironment 100 is only one example of a suitable computing environmentand is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality contained in the disclosure. The computing systemenvironment 100 should not be interpreted as having any dependency orrequirement relating to any one or combination of components shown inthe illustrative computing system environment 100.

The disclosure is operational with numerous other general purpose orspecial purpose computing system environments or configurations.Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/orconfigurations that may be suitable for use with the disclosedembodiments include, but are not limited to, personal computers (PCs),server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers,distributed computing environments that include any of the above systemsor devices, and the like.

With reference to FIG. 1, the computing system environment 100 mayinclude a computing device 101 wherein the processes discussed hereinmay be implemented. The computing device 101 may have a processor 103for controlling overall operation of the computing device 101 and itsassociated components, including random-access memory (RAM) 105,read-only memory (ROM) 107, communications module 109, and memory 115.Computing device 101 typically includes a variety of computer readablemedia. Computer readable media may be any available media that may beaccessed by computing device 101 and include both volatile andnonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example,and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise a combinationof computer storage media and communication media.

Computer storage media include volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data. Computer storage media include, but isnot limited to, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM),electronically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD)or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium that can be used to store the desired information and that can beaccessed by computing device 101.

Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includesany information delivery media. Modulated data signal includes a signalthat has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such amanner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, andnot limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wirednetwork or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic,RF, infrared and other wireless media.

Computing system environment 100 may also include optical scanners (notshown). Exemplary usages include scanning and converting paperdocuments, e.g., correspondence and receipts to digital files.

Although not shown, RAM 105 may include one or more are applicationsrepresenting the application data stored in RAM 105 while the computingdevice is on and corresponding software applications (e.g., softwaretasks), are running on the computing device 101.

Communications module 109 may include a microphone, keypad, touchscreen, and/or stylus through which a user of computing device 101 mayprovide input, and may also include one or more of a speaker forproviding audio output and a video display device for providing textual,audiovisual and/or graphical output.

Software may be stored within memory 115 and/or storage to provideinstructions to processor 103 for enabling computing device 101 toperform various functions. For example, memory 115 may store softwareused by the computing device 101, such as an operating system 117,application programs 119, and an associated database 121. Also, some orall of the computer executable instructions for computing device 101 maybe embodied in hardware or firmware.

Computing device 101 may operate in a networked environment supportingconnections to one or more remote computing devices, such as computingdevices 141, 151, and 161. The computing devices 141, 151, and 161 maybe personal computing devices or servers that include many or all of theelements described above relative to the computing device 101. Computingdevice 161 may be a mobile device communicating over wireless carrierchannel 171.

The network connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network(LAN) 125 and a wide area network (WAN) 129, but may also include othernetworks. When used in a LAN networking environment, computing device101 may be connected to the LAN 125 through a network interface oradapter in the communications module 109. When used in a WAN networkingenvironment, the computing device 101 may include a modem in thecommunications module 109 or other means for establishing communicationsover the WAN 129, such as the Internet 131 or other type of computernetwork. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areillustrative and other means of establishing a communications linkbetween the computing devices may be used. Various well-known protocolssuch as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and the like may be used, and thesystem can be operated in a client-server or in Distributed Computingconfiguration to permit a user to retrieve web pages from a web-basedserver. Any of various conventional web browsers can be used to displayand manipulate data on web pages.

Additionally, one or more application programs 119 used by the computingdevice 101, according to an illustrative embodiment, may includecomputer executable instructions for invoking user functionality relatedto communication including, for example, email, short message service(SMS), and voice input and speech recognition applications.

Embodiments of the disclosure may include forms of computer-readablemedia. Computer-readable media include any available media that can beaccessed by a computing device 101. Computer-readable media may comprisestorage media and communication media and in some examples may benon-transitory. Storage media include volatile and nonvolatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in any method ortechnology for storage of information such as computer-readableinstructions, object code, data structures, program modules, or otherdata. Communication media include any information delivery media andtypically embody data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier waveor other transport mechanism.

Although not required, various aspects described herein may be embodiedas a method, a data processing system, or a computer-readable mediumstoring computer-executable instructions. For example, acomputer-readable medium storing instructions to cause a processor toperform steps of a method in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiments is contemplated. For example, aspects of the method stepsdisclosed herein may be executed on a processor on a computing device101. Such a processor may execute computer-executable instructionsstored on a computer-readable medium.

Referring to FIG. 2, an illustrative system 200 for implementing exampleembodiments according to the present disclosure is shown. Asillustrated, system 200 may include one or more workstation computers201. Workstations 201 may be local or remote, and may be connected byone of communications links 202 to computer network 203 that is linkedvia communications links 205 to server 204. In system 200, server 204may be any suitable server, processor, computer, or data processingdevice, or combination of the same. Server 204 may be used to processthe instructions received from, and the transactions entered into by,one or more participants.

Computer network 203 may be any suitable computer network including theInternet, an intranet, a wide-area network (WAN), a local-area network(LAN), a wireless network, a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, aframe relay network, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network, avirtual private network (VPN), or any combination of any of the same.Communications links 202 and 205 may be any communications linkssuitable for communicating between workstations 201 and server 204, suchas network links, dial-up links, wireless links, and hard-wired links.

The steps that follow in the Figures may be implemented by one or moreof the components in FIGS. 1 and 2 and/or other components, includingother computing devices.

FIG. 3 shows transaction system 300 with a plurality of automated tellermachines 301-306 according to the present disclosure. Automated tellermachine (ATM) 301-306 may be referred to as an automatic teller machine,automated banking machine (ABM), cash machine, or “a hole in the wall.”Automated teller machine 301-306 typically comprises a computerizedtelecommunications device that provides customers of a financialinstitution with access to financial transactions in a public spacewithout the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller. Using anautomated teller machine, customers can access their bank accounts inorder to make cash withdrawals, debit card cash advances, and checktheir account balances as well as purchase prepaid cell phone credit.

A financial institution can interact with automated teller machines301-306 through a communications network, which is referred to as anetwork. The financial institution may monitor automated tell machines301-306 through monitoring computer 312 that executes differentapplications to monitor transaction system 300. With an aspect of thedisclosure, the root cause of an outage may be determined through atriage/troubleshooting procedure. The procedure may determine whetherthe root cause is improper internal operations (e.g., instability of anapplication) or a communications outage (e.g., telecommunicationsnetwork/equipment problem). The severity assignment of the outage may bebased only on the impact on the ATMs rather than the root cause.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, communications to differentATMs may be supported by different telecommunications vendors (referredas vendors). For example, communications to ATMs 301-304 and 305-306 aresupported by network 309 (vendor 1) and network 310 (vendor 2),respectively. Moreover, automated teller machines 301-306 may bepartitioned by regions, e.g., where automated teller machines 301-302,303-304, and 305-306 are located in regions 307, 308, and 309,respectively. For example, transaction system 300 may span the New YorkCity metropolitan area, where regions 307-309 correspond to Manhattan,Long Island, and northeastern New Jersey, respectively.

According to traditional systems, all automated teller machines 301-306may be treated equally when determining the severity of an outage. Basedon the severity, a vendor of a network assesses the urgency forcorrecting the outage, typically in accordance with a service levelagreement (SLA) between the financial institution and the vendor. Whilethe above approach may be consistent with the service level agreement,this approach might not accurately gauge the customer impact of theoutage. The transaction volume may vary for different ATMs and fordifferent times. For example, transaction volume for an automated tellermachine located in a city's downtown is typically greater than anautomated teller machine located at the outside fringes of the city.Also, traditional systems might not include the effects of the durationof an outage. However, the longer the outage duration, the greater thenumber of failed transactions, and consequently the greater the customerimpact. Also, the transaction volume typically varies with the time ofday (e.g., midnight versus noon), day of the week, and so forth.

Monitoring computer 312 may communicate with automated teller machines301-306 on a periodic basis. When expected communications is disrupted,monitoring computer 312 deems that the corresponding automated tellermachine 301-306 is experiencing an outage (which may be referred as anoutage ATM). Monitoring computer 312 may gauge the severity of theoutage based on the number of outage automated teller machines, thetransaction volume of the outage automated teller machines, the durationof the outage, and the like.

With an aspect of the disclosure, monitoring computer 312 may determinethe failed customer transactions by accessing data structure 314 toobtain the average transaction volume for the corresponding automatedteller machine for the outage time duration. The average transactionvolume may then be multiplied by the outage duration to estimate thenumber of failed customer transaction. For example, if automated tellermachine 301-306 has an average transaction volume of 10 transactions perhour, the estimated number of failed customer transactions is 10 whenthe outage duration is 1 hour and 25 when the outage duration is 2.5hours.

As will be further discussed, the severity of the outage may bedetermined from one or more outage parameters, including the number ofoutage automated teller machines, location of the outage automatedteller machines, and/or estimated failed customer interactions.Monitoring computer 312 may then generate an indicator (e.g., a message)to network support system 313 to alert the responsible party to initiateaction to correct the outage. As previously discussed, communications todifferent networks may be supported by different vendors, each having aseparate service level agreement. In such a case, the indicator may besent to support center 313 of the responsible vendor. Moreover, when theoutage spans networks 310-311, the severity level may be specific to anetwork or may be aggregated over all of the networks. In the formercase, the severity level may be driven by the service level agreementwith the vendor; while in the latter case, the severity level may betterreflect the effect over the entire transaction system.

FIG. 4 shows an example chart 400 for assessing a severity level oftransaction system 300 that is experiencing an outage according to thepresent disclosure. An outage may occur for unplanned reasons 405 (e.g.,network failure or power outage) or for planned reasons 406 (e.g.,maintenance). With some embodiments, mapping the criteria for the numberof outage automated teller machines to the severity level may bedifferent for unplanned reasons 405 versus planned reasons 406. Also,the criteria for the number of outage automated teller machines may befurther contingent on the duration of the outage.

The severity level 402, 403, or 404 may be based on the number of outageautomated teller machines and the estimated failed customer interactions(FCIs) 401. As will be discussed with FIG. 8, monitoring computer 312determines the estimated failed customer interactions from transactiontraffic history data structure 314. However, other outage parametersand/or combinations of outage parameters may be used for determining theseverity level. For example, some embodiments may use the ATM locationas one parameter in conjunction with other outage parameters, includingthe outage duration.

In this example, there are three severity levels: first, second, andthird severity levels 404, 403, and 402, respectively, where the firstseverity level has the most urgency. With an aspect of the disclosure,FCI 401 may be determined in different ways. For example, FCI 401 may bebased on estimated FCIs or calculated FCIs. Calculated FCIs may bedetermined in hours, possibly days later after the occurrence by anautomated system. The automated system may calculate the estimated lossof transactions based on the transaction volume patterns within eachspecific ATM. Estimated FCIs may be based on the average number oftransactions that occur across or network during peak versus non-peaktimes. Specific ATM transactions by ATM may not be available real time,so the determination may use a general estimated loss of transactions toassess the FCI impact in order to assign a severity level of the outage.With the example shown in FIG. 4, the urgency for resolving the outageincreases with a lower numbered severity level. For example, when thecalculated (estimated) FCIs is less than 10,000 transactions or thenumber of outage automated teller machines is between 25 and 99 ATMs,the outage is determined to be at a third severity level.

With an aspect of the disclosure, the determination of the severitylevel may consider a single outage and/or multiple outages that have acumulative impact and/or a regional impact to customers. For example,referring to FIG. 4, the criterion for the second severity level due toa communication outage is 100 to 500 ATMs impacted from a single outageor a cumulative impact greater than 15 minutes over multiple outages.

Referring to an example previously presented with FIG. 3, automatedteller machines 301-306 may be partitioned by regions, where regions307-309 correspond to Manhattan, Long Island, and northeastern NewJersey, respectively. Some embodiments may support different criteriafor different regions. Also, the criteria for the entire transactionarea (e.g., over combined regions 307-309) may differ from individualregions (region 307 versus region 308 versus region 309) and/ordifferent vendors (regions 307-308 versus region 309). While thecriteria may differ from a service level agreement, the criteria maybetter reflect the perspective of the customers. If the above criteriavary from a service level agreement, a vendor may wish to enhanceservice for the financial institution. Moreover, the financialinstitution may wish to modify the service level agreement when theservice agreement is renewed to better reflect the customer'sperspective.

FIG. 5 shows process 500 for assessing outage data for a transactionsystem according to the present disclosure. Process 500 may use a set ofcriteria to create a severity rating that can automate theidentification of automated teller machines 301-306 (as shown in FIG. 3)and/or region 305-306 based on a prioritization during an outage.

At block 501, monitoring computer 312 (as shown in FIG. 3) obtainsoutage data for transition system 300. For example, an outage withautomated teller machine 301 may be detected by monitoring when computer312 is not able to communicate with automated teller machine 301 throughnetwork 310. Outage data may include one or more parameters, includingthe number of failed customer transactions, duration of the outage,and/or location of an automated teller machine. For example, a financialinstitution may consider a particular automated teller machine to be ina highly strategic location with respect to other automated tellermachines.

At block 502, monitoring computer 312 prioritizes the outage automatedteller machines and/or regions. For each example, the service area oftransaction system 300 may be partitioned into geographic regions307-309, where each region is served by a subset of automated tellermachines (e.g., region 308 served by automated teller machines 303-304as shown in FIG. 3).

At block 503, monitoring computer 312 generates an indication (e.g.,e-mail, short message service (SMS) message, custom message, or thelike) that includes the determined prioritization as determined at block502.

FIG. 6 shows process 600 for assessing a severity level of a transactionsystem outage according to the present disclosure. At blocks 601 and602, the number of estimated failed customer interactions (FCI) duringthe outage and the number of outage ATMs are respectively compared tothe FCI and number of outage ATM criteria for the i^(th) severity level.For example, referring to chart 400 shown in FIG. 4, for a communicationoutage, the FCI range and the outage ATM range for the second severitylevel are 10,000 to 25,000 FCIs and 100-500 automated teller machines(for down time greater than 15 minutes across a PRO), respectively. Whenthe outage data is within the predetermined ranges, process 600 sets theseverity level to the corresponding value at block 603.

While the severity level is based on either comparison at blocks 601 and602 being true (corresponding to an OR logical function), another typeof logic function (e.g., an AND logic function) or a plurality of logicfunctions may be used to determine the severity level of an outage.Also, other comparison results for other outage parameters may belogically combined to determine the severity level of an outage.

With some embodiments, the outage automated teller machines may berank-ordered at block 604 based on the estimated failed financialtransactions projected for a given ATM. The priority order may provide apreference for re-activating automated teller machines by theresponsible party. Based on determined severity level, the appropriateoutage procedure may be performed. For example, software may be updatedonly for the first severity level. Also, the severity level may dictateemergency change protocols that can be implemented to introduce changein the environment. Changes may include the authorization oflogical/physical changes of the telecommunications equipment withinnetwork 300, internal ATM software changes, internalapplication/database changes, and external hardware/software changes.

FIG. 7 shows process 700 for determining whether to perform an immediateupdate within a transaction system according to the present disclosure.At block 701 monitoring computer 312 receives a request to update someor all of the automated teller machines in transaction system 300. Forexample, maintenance personnel may request to update software thatexecutes on the software to fix known bugs or to enhance the automatedteller machine's capabilities. However, updating an automated tellermachine may cause unanticipated problems, so the financial institutionmay authorize the update only when resolving the outage is sufficientlyurgent, e.g., with the first and second severity level as determined atblock 702. If so, updating is authorized as soon as possible at block703. Otherwise the update is delayed until a scheduled time at block704.

With an aspect of the disclosure, process 700 may treat different typesof updates differently. For example, ATM software may be updated withfirst and second severity levels while ATM hardware may be updated onlywith the first severity level.

FIG. 8 shows process 800 for determining a failed customer indicator fora transaction system according to the present disclosure. At block 801,monitoring computer 312 determines whether to access transaction historydata for outage automated teller machines in system 300 from datastructure 314 (as shown in FIG. 3). For example, monitoring computer 312may periodically access transaction history data (e.g., every 15minutes) during the outage. Data structure 314 may have the historicalaverage transaction activity for each automated teller machine accordingto the hour, month, and day of the week. At block 802 computer 312accesses the historical outage data and updates the estimated failedcustomer interactions at block 803 based on an amount for theincremental duration of the outage. For example, if there are 100 outageATMs, each having a historical average of 10 transactions per hour, thefailed customer interactions is 1000 transactions if the outagecontinues for 1 hour. If the outage continues for a second hour and ifthe historical average increases to 15 transactions per hour, theestimated failed customer interactions is 2500 transactions for theoutage.

If the historical average varies by automated teller machine, datastructure 314 may have outage statistics on a per automated tellermachine basis so that the estimated failed customer interactions may beupdated on a per automated teller machine basis. Monitoring computer 312may further prioritize the outage automated teller machines at block 804according to the contribution of the automated teller machine to theestimated failed customer interaction. Maintenance personnel may thenresolve the outage based on the prioritization.

Aspects of the embodiments have been described in terms of illustrativeembodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications andvariations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occurto persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of thisdisclosure. For example, one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the steps illustrated in the illustrative figures may beperformed in other than the recited order, and that one or more stepsillustrated may be optional in accordance with aspects of theembodiments. They may determine that the requirements should be appliedto third party service providers (e.g., those that maintain records onbehalf of the company).

We claim:
 1. A computer-assisted method for assessing a status of acomputer transaction system, the computer transaction system including aplurality of automated teller machines (ATMs), a service area of thecomputer transaction system spanning a plurality of geographicalregions, the plurality of geographical regions including a firstgeographical region and a second geographical region, the methodcomprising: obtaining, by a processor, outage criteria for the computertransaction system, wherein the outage criteria is dependent ondifferent geographical regions in the computer transaction system;determining, by the processor, a first severity level for the firstgeographical region based on a first criteria for an outage in thecomputer transaction system, wherein the first geographical regioncomprises a first subset of the plurality of ATMs; identifying, based onthe first severity level, a first set of computer resources from aplurality of computer resources of the computer transaction system;determining, by the processor, a second severity level for the secondgeographical region based on a second criteria for the outage, whereinthe first criteria and the second criteria are different; identifying,based on the second severity level, a second set of computer resourcesfrom the plurality of computer resources; prioritizing, by theprocessor, the plurality of geographical regions of the computertransaction system based on the outage criteria, the prioritizationindicative of an ordering for correcting the outage of a correspondingregion of the computer transaction system; generating, by the processor,an indication that includes information indicative of theprioritization; based on the indication of the prioritization,initiating, by the processor, a recovery procedure to recover from theoutage for a portion of the computer transaction system in a prioritizedgeographical region of the service area; and changing, by the recoveryprocedure based on the determined severity level of the prioritizedgeographical region, the identified set of computer resources of thecomputer transaction system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theprioritizing comprises: determining a measure of failed customertransactions for each geographical region of the transaction system; andrank ordering the plurality of geographical regions based on thecorresponding measures.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the rankordering is further based on a location of each geographical region ofthe transaction system.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:determining a combined severity level for the plurality of geographicalregions based on a third criterion for the outage, wherein the thirdcriterion is different from the first and second criteria.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the changing comprises: updating software only forthe portion of the computer transaction system in the prioritizedgeographical region.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the changingcomprises: invoking an emergency change protocol to induce anenvironment change.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the changingcomprises: authorizing at least one of a logical change and a physicalchange for telecommunications equipment within the portion of thecomputer transaction system .
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein thechanging comprises: authorizing an internal ATM software change withinthe portion of the computer transaction system.
 9. The method of claim6, wherein the changing comprises: authorizing at least one of aninternal application change and an internal database within the portionof the computer transaction system.
 10. The method of claim 6, whereinthe changing comprises: authorizing at least one of a hardware changeand a software change within the portion of the computer transactionsystem.
 11. A computer transaction system comprising: a plurality ofautomated teller machines (ATMs); at least one memory; and at least oneprocessor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to perform,based on instructions stored in the at least one memory: obtainingoutage criteria for the computer transaction system, wherein: the outagecriteria is dependent on different geographical regions in a servicearea of the computer transaction system; the service area spans aplurality of geographical regions; and the plurality of geographicalregions includes a first geographical region and a second geographicalregion; determining a first severity level for the first geographicalregion based on a first criteria for an outage in the computertransaction system, wherein the first geographical region comprises afirst subset of the plurality of ATMs; identifying, based on the firstseverity level, a first computer resource from a plurality of computerresources of the computer transaction system; determining a secondseverity level for the second geographical region based on a secondcriteria for the outage, wherein the first criteria and the secondcriteria are different; identifying, based on the second severity level,a second computer resource from the plurality of computer resources,wherein the first and second resource are different; prioritizing theplurality of geographical regions of the computer transaction systembased on the outage data, the prioritization indicative of an orderingfor correcting the outage of a corresponding region of the computertransaction system; generating an indication that includes informationindicative of the prioritization; based on the indication of theprioritization, initiating a recovery procedure to recover from theoutage for a portion of the computer transaction system in a prioritizedgeographical region of the service area, wherein the prioritizedgeographical region is one of the plurality of geographical regions andcomprises a corresponding subset of the plurality of ATMs; and changing,by the recovery procedure based on the determined severity level of theprioritized geographical region, the identified computer resource of thecomputer transaction system.
 12. The computer transaction system ofclaim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured toperform: determining a measure of failed customer transactions for eachgeographical region of the transaction system; and rank ordering theplurality of geographical regions based on the corresponding measures.13. The computer transaction system of claim 12, wherein the rankordering is further based on a location of each geographical region ofthe transaction system.
 14. The computer transaction system of claim 11,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform:determining a combined severity level for the plurality of geographicalregions based on a third criterion for the outage, wherein the thirdcriterion is different from the first and second criteria.
 15. Thecomputer transaction system of claim 11, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to perform: updating software only forthe portion of the computer transaction system in the prioritizedgeographical region.
 16. The computer transaction system of claim 11,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform:invoking an emergency change protocol to induce an environment change.17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a processorat least to perform operations comprising: obtaining, by the processor,outage criteria for a computer transaction system, wherein: the outagecriteria is dependent on different geographical regions in a servicearea of the computer transaction system; the service area spans aplurality of geographical regions; and the computer transaction systemcomprises a plurality of automated teller machines (ATMs); determining,by the processor, a first severity level for the first geographicalregion based on a first criteria for an outage in the computertransaction system, wherein a first geographical region comprises afirst subset of the plurality of ATMs; identifying, based on the firstseverity level, a first set of computer resources from a plurality ofcomputer resources of the computer transaction system; determining, bythe processor, a second severity level for a second geographical regionbased on a second criteria for the outage, wherein the first criteriaand the second criteria are different; identifying, based on the secondseverity level, a second set of computer resources from the plurality ofcomputer resources; prioritizing, by the processor, the plurality ofgeographical regions of the computer transaction system based on theoutage criteria, the prioritization indicative of an ordering forcorrecting the outage of a corresponding region of the computertransaction system; generating, by the processor, an indication thatincludes information indicative of the prioritization; based on theindication of the prioritization, initiating a recovery procedure torecover from the outage for corresponding subset of ATMs of the computertransaction system in a prioritized geographical region, wherein theprioritized geographical region is one of the plurality of geographicalregions; and changing, by the recovery procedure based on the determinedseverity level of the prioritized geographical region, the identifiedset of computer resources of the computer transaction system.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor toperform: determining a measure of failed customer transactions for eachgeographical region of the transaction system; and rank ordering theplurality of geographical regions based on the corresponding measures.19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18,wherein the rank ordering is further based on a location of eachgeographical region of the transaction system.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor toperform: determining a combined severity level for the plurality ofgeographical regions based on a third criterion for the outage, whereinthe third criterion is different from the first and second criteria. 21.A computer transaction system comprising: a plurality of automatedteller machines (ATMs), the plurality comprising a first subset of ATMsand a second subset of ATMs; at least one memory; and at least oneprocessor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to perform,based on instructions stored in the at least one memory: obtainingoutage criteria for the computer transaction system, wherein the outagecriteria is dependent on different partitions in a service area of thecomputer transaction system and wherein the service area spans aplurality of partitions; determining a first severity level for a firstpartition based on a first criteria for an outage in the computertransaction system and a second severity level for a second partitionbased on a second criteria for the outage, wherein the first partitionand the second partition comprise the first subset and the second subsetof ATMs, respectively, and wherein the first criteria and the secondcriteria are different; identifying, based on the first severity level,a first computer resource from a plurality of computer resources of thecomputer transaction system; identifying, based on the second severitylevel, a second computer resource from the plurality of computerresources, wherein the first and second resources are different;prioritizing the plurality of partitions of the computer transactionsystem based on the outage data, the prioritization indicative of anordering for correcting the outage of a corresponding partition of thecomputer transaction system; based on the prioritization, initiating arecovery procedure to recover from the outage for a portion of thecomputer transaction system in a prioritized partition of the servicearea, wherein the prioritized geographical partition is one of theplurality of partitions and comprises a corresponding subset of theplurality of ATMs; and changing, by the recovery procedure based on thedetermined severity level of the prioritized partition, the identifiedcomputer resource of the computer transaction system to recover from theoutage.